The Stars in Paris
by HPOwlLover24
Summary: Sometimes feelings change but they're never diminished. But again, it's easy when you care for people who are the same.
1. The Stars

The August night air was cool against the exposed skin on his face and he relished in the feel of it. He grinned, his green eyes sweeping the empty streets of Paris quickly. His hands gripped the edge of the building excitedly as he readied himself to jump over the edge. He could easily sense how high he was without actually looking down, something similar to a sixth sense that he got from Plagg when he transformed. An instinct.

And this is what he lived for. This was the time of the day he loved the best; the dark sky was spotted with dim stars that were blotted out by the many street lamps that glared below him. He could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance, the occasional bird flying to the tower, his eyes easily catching what was happening.

Chat Noir was part of the night; this was where he was real. He was free. He was invincible. He could be who he really was. He wasn't some lonely teenager on the verge of finishing his last year of high school. Or the model that most of the girls he knew swooned over, the ones who only cared about the cameras that surrounded him.

It was different for him when he changed; he wasn't someone that other people loved. He was someone _he_ loved.

He was a hero of Paris, a fighter for those who needed his protection.

His grinned widened and he launched himself over the edge.

The rush of air met him and he yelled, feeling it whip through his hair and whistle past his ears.

His hands reached out and, with amazing ease, he grabbed the top of a lamppost and flipped himself over. His feline stature rested against the top of the post as he studied the street. Despite his obvious happiness, he still had a job to do no matter how at ease he felt.

The street was silent and empty except for a lone figure, sitting on the steps of his school.

Chat tilted his head and blinked. He couldn't understand why anyone would be at the school this late, nor could he think of a classmate that would be here now.

He hopped from lamppost to lamppost, secluded from sight as he made his way to the dark building. His eyes pierced through the darkness and he kept them on the lone figure, which seemed to be focusing on something in their lap and murmuring words that he couldn't quite hear.

Curiosity killed the cat as they always said.

Chat landed at the top of the stairs as quietly as he could but, nonetheless, he noticed the figure straighten, moving their arms in front of them.

"Who's there?"

The voice was familiar and nearly made him smile. _Was his lady on patrol and taking a break?_

The figure turned their head and, through the darkness, Chat could see Marinette's worried face, searching for the small commotion.

He tilted his head in confusion before straightening up, a smirk playing at his lips. "Ah, princess. Nice to see you here," his voice was layered with confidence as he stepped forward, coming into her line of sight. He grabbed his tail and started swinging it around, his eyes focusing on the girl in front of him as he approached her.

"Oh, Chat Noir, it's just you," Marinette's shoulders slumped as she let out a sigh of relief, relaxing again as she had before.

Chat leaned against the stonewall that lined the steps to the school, dropping his tail as he crossed his arms in front of him and grinned at her. "To what do I owe this lovely pleasure?"

She scoffed, "I believe I should be asking that question. It was you who came to me, was it not?"

Chat shrugged. "I was on patrol and saw a suspicious figure. I didn't think it would be you." He looked her up and down carefully, noticing that she had her purse on her hip and her sketchbook in hand. "You don't happen to be carrying weapons of mass destruction? Besides that disarming smile I mean."

Marinette propped a hand on her hip and shot him a skeptical look. "Do you flirt with every girl you meet?"

"Only the special ones, Princess," Chat replied with a wink.

Marinette rolled her eyes and shook her head, but he didn't miss the small smile she had.

This is what he enjoyed the most, the confidence, the complete certainty he had in himself. He would never be able to do this at school with Marinette in front of his classmates, even if there was no one around. Nor would he be able to have a conversation such as this with this particular girl.

It wasn't as though Marinette was the same stuttering, clumsy girl she had been a few years ago. She did still seem a bit awkward around him during school hours, but it was different than before. And that small change boosted Adrien's confidence when he was around her. Even as Chat.

He understood that his level of flirting may be at a ridiculous level, but, if he was being honest, he couldn't help himself around Marinette. He had seen her plenty of time since the first time he had met her as Chat Noir, and every time was like this. It was a wonder she hadn't told him to simply bugger off.

Chat nodded at the book in her hand, "Is that why you're here so late? It's not safe, you know." Did she really think it was okay to go out at such a late hour for a book?

Marinette waved away his concern, looking up at the stars the shined dimly past the bright streetlights. "I was here for some inspiration. There's a piece I'm trying to design and I can't seem to find what I want exactly…" She trailed off, sighing slightly before looking over at him. "Besides, with you and Ladybug, there's no need to feel unprotected, right? Especially if I continue to be stalked by one of them."

"Ah, I was beginning to wonder when the cheekiness was going to begin," Chat chuckled.

He watched her as she turned to look back at the stars, the light from the street illuminating her features. Chat couldn't look away, mesmerized by how she was studying the stars, a slight wonder in her expression that made him think of what he felt every time he transformed…

Chat smiled, walking over to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. She dragged her blue eyes away from the stars to look up at him in confusion.

For a second, the stars still shone in those eyes.

Chat smiled wider, "Want to get above the street lights? Your inspiration may be more clear up there."

"Um…" Marinette hesitated, glancing at her purse before looking back at Chat. "I could probably just use the small terrace on top of my home."

Chat shook his head, and looked at the Eiffel Tower in the distance. They could probably make it there in fifteen minutes, ten if she held on tight. "I was thinking something a little higher up."

* * *

Marinette brushed her bangs out of her eyes and tried to flatten her, now disheveled, hair. "I don't know why I agreed to this," she muttered, fixing her clothes.

Chat chuckled, walking to the edge of the floor they were on. He climbed as high as he could without exerting himself too much. Couldn't have himself transform back at the top of the Eiffel Tower now, could he?

All of Paris lay before him, stretched out for him to see and hear and smell. Despite the quiet night he had, he could hear the Parisians finishing their days before turning in. He heard the cars passing through the streets of the closing shops, heard the children crying about going to bed so early. He could smell the bakeries and restaurants carrying along the wind to his spot on the Tower. He could see the stars now, clearly, shinning above the city and twinkling happily in the dark sky.

He loved this view, enjoyed being away from being in the middle of city and, instead, observing it. He soaked in everything he could as often as he could.

Marinette sighed happily beside him, and he turned to look at her, almost forgetting why he came up there in the first place. "This is my favorite time of the day. When the city just seems to get ready to sleep." She sat down, her book falling open in her lap as she continued to stare at the horizon, where the sky met the skyline of the city.

Immediately, she began to sketch something out, her pencil flying across the paper as her head moved from studying the book to staring intensely the skyline.

He moved to sit beside her quietly. "What are you designing?" Chat asked, his voice low. The atmosphere seemed to be too peaceful to ruin with a loud question.

She hummed, still sketching, her lips moving in time with her hand. She smiled then began biting her lip and frowned before pressing her lips together.

It was silly to see, Marinette had always been so expressive, but to see her do it so freely was different. He was used to her shy statements and blushing cheeks. This was something he definitely enjoyed and wished he could see more of, if at all. Marinette just seemed to be so…so carefree. She was throwing all of herself into her work and happy with it. It was really admirable, something he wished he could say completely about his work. But Marinette was unashamedly doing so. Did she realize what she was doing?

He smiled as he noticed her tongue sticking out while her hand continued to move across the paper swiftly. _Adorable._

Unconsciously, he leaned in, trying to see what she was doing on that paper that she was so invested in to ignore him completely. Not that he minded, but he was still curious.

Suddenly, she stopped. Her hand froze at the edge of the paper as she stared hard at the skyline. "I…I think I actually finished." She turned to look at Chat with bright blue eyes, finally taking notice that he was right beside her.

Chat's eyes widened slightly and he moved back quickly, thankful his mask was covering half of his face as it began to heat up. _So many freckles…!_

"Sorry! I didn't mean to ignore you." Marinette smiled beside him. "But when inspiration strikes, you have to grab it before it's gone!"

Chat shook his head, "It's not a problem." He regained his footing, figuratively, before looking back over at her. "What are you working on?"

She sighed again, "My final piece for this next year. This year there will be a fashion show, and one of the pieces is a gown. I've been thinking it over all summer, but couldn't come up with anything!" She looked back up at him, smiling excitedly, "But I think I finally got it! Maybe there will be a few alterations, but that's beside the point right now."

"May I see?"

Marinette nodded and showed him the page that she had been working on. Chat leaned over and studied the design on the page.

He couldn't really tell what he was looking at to explain it in details, but he could tell that it was going to be long and trailing behind the person wearing it. He noticed the small dip in the back and the neckline in the front was moderately high. But the bottom half of the gown seemed to have small dots everywhere, they just littered the gown.

Chat tried to read the notes she had written in the margins, but she closed the book before he could make out the little scribbles.

"Huh?"

Marinette held the book tightly between her hands, looking back over the Paris skyline. Chat could make out the light brush of red on her cheeks and he couldn't bother himself to move away.

"Nothing…uh, should we be getting back now?"

Chet grinned, "Eager for me to visit your home again? Maybe this time I can be asked inside…?"

Marinette turned to look at him, and again Chat realized how close he had been.

She stood up quickly and smirked, past embarrassment obviously forgotten, "Not tonight kitty cat. But I would appreciate getting home before my curfew."

Chat stood up, extending his hand and bowing, "Of course princess. I'll get you home before the clock strikes midnight."

"Well, my curfew is before then, but I appreciate the sentiment." Chat chuckled as she took his hand.

He reacted before he could think and kissed her hand, his green eyes closing for a brief second before moving to look at her. He hadn't meant to do that it was just a reaction…

But Marinette wasn't mad, not that he could tell at least. She was actually trying not to laugh, her bottom lip caught between her teeth as she held back the giggles. "What?"

She giggled, before regaining her composure, "Could you be anymore cliché?"

Chat straightened and started laughing himself, "It's all part of my swooning techniques." He side stepped closer to her, a small distance between the two of them, "Is it working?"

Marinette grinned, reaching up to flick his cat ear gently, "Only in your wildest dreams kitty."

Chat laughed again before swinging her onto his back and climbing down the Tower. They only had until her curfew after all.

* * *

 **So, I have been sucked into the Miraculous fandom and I love it so much. These characters are precious and I love them so much. They've basically consumed me and they're always on my mind dang it. Anywho~ I'll be doing this along with another of my fics when I have time! Hopefully often, but I do have a lot of papers to work on this semester, so please be patient with me.**

 **Writing Tumblr is hpowllover24. I hope y'all enjoyed this!**


	2. New Worries

Chat landed in a dark street beside her home, and she let go of him, fixing her clothes and hair again so that her parents wouldn't ask questions. "Well, thank you for that, Chat Noir. I must have been lucky to have you bring me such inspiration." Though she was still slightly annoyed with the hero, there was no denying that he is the reason that she had finally reached a decision about her gown and at least sketched out a design.

"Ah, but to be honest, I believe it was me who have stumbled into a little bit of luck tonight." He took her free hand and kissed it again, and Marinette pursed her lips to hold back a smile. "Until next time, Princess."

Then he left, springing into the night where it seemed to envelope him.

She watched him leave until she could not make out his figure any longer, and entered her parents' bakery. She waved at them and made her way up to her room before they could tell that she was flushed and still a bit disheveled from her quick travels across Paris.

Marinette closed the door to her room behind her, leaning against her door for a second before moving. "That was weird," she murmured, falling on her bed, her sketchbook still in her grip.

"It's not as though he knows who you are," Tikki trilled, flying over to Marinette's bedside table. "You two are complete strangers to each other when you are not in hero form."

Marinette glanced at Tikki before staring back up at the ceiling. She blew a strand of her hair out of her face. She understood that, but that wasn't what she meant.

Why was Chat Noir interested in her, in Marinette, of all people?

She could understand if he was on patrol and bored and wanted to talk to the next person he saw; patrol was boring after all. So she understood why he would talk to her for a bit after he figured out who she was.

But actually go out of his way to take her to the Eiffel Tower? That's what got her.

She was boring, plain, simple. There was nothing special about her and she knew that. That's why she enjoyed being Ladybug. She could be someone special then, someone worth something. Someone who had a meaning. Not just a girl who enjoyed designing clothes and had a silly crush on someone who would never notice her that way.

Marinette stared at the ceiling for a little longer before getting ready for bed. Maybe Chat was just upping his flirt game and hoping for a person to test it on. If that was the case, then she was happy to go through that to get the idea for her gown.

Part of her was kind of surprised she hadn't thought of going to the Eiffel Tower during a patrol before. But, to be fair, she never took her sketchbook when she went out on normal patrols. So the thought never occurred to her.

It wasn't until she started to fall asleep that the though crossed her mind: why did she go with him then?

* * *

Marinette hadn't completely forgotten about her one on one with Chat last night, but she pushed it to the back of her mind when she reached the school the next morning. First day of their final year, she needed to start focusing now. Next year they'd have to start finding jobs or going to college…ah, wasn't the future just a lovely thought?

Alya was waiting in front of the school for her, like always, typing away on her phone excitedly. She seemed as if she was ready to burst, and Marinette was surprised she hasn't dropped her phone yet at the rate her charm seemed to be swinging.

"Hey Alya," Marinette waved at her friend as she approached.

"Marinette! Okay, look, you'll never guess what I found out this morning!" Alya yanked her closer, Marinette nearly falling over as she stumbled beside her friend.

Alya shoved her phone in front of her face to show a dark picture of a silhouette flying across the sky. Marinette couldn't really understand what she was staring at. All she could see was the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and the moon. "Um…what am I looking at?"

Alya sighed, a small smile playing on her lips. Marinette gave her a shy smile in return, she was happy her friend understood that she just didn't look at her blog as constantly as Alya posted.

"You are looking at a potentially new superhero or villain."

"What?"

Marinette looked at Alya with confusion, "A new hero? Are you sure?" She hadn't heard anything from Chat. And she was sure that she would know if someone else came in to the mix. According to Tikki, that's how it works with the kwami; they just manage to find each other. That's how she met Chat.

Unless this new person was a villain, Ladybug and Chat couldn't sense villains in general, like Hawk Moth. And her and Chat could only figure out that an akuma was out and about by what destruction and chaos that was occurring around them. If that were the case, this was very serious.

What a fabulous way to start of the new school year.

"…like twice the size of Chat Noir and Ladybug, though not as fast. It was seen around the Eiffel Tower last night, but no one could really tell what the figure looked like. And this was the only decent photograph. Because, let's face it, no one was expecting it!"

"Oh! Well…that's really interesting, Alya. I hope you get the next big scoop soon." Marinette gave her a thumbs-up and tried to forget about the figure completely; it was not like she could make it out from the photo. She was just going to have to talk to Chat about it tonight.

Her thoughts stuttered to a halt when she noticed Adrien and Nino making their way toward them.

Things weren't as awkward for her when she was around Adrien as they had been years before. She still stuttered a bit around him, but, after finally seeming to get used to him being around, she seemed to have worked through that awkward phase. Hopefully.

It did help that they had been in the same classes while here at school. She saw him a lot, especially when the school would do the design competitions with his dad. She nearly always won, which always gave her the extra opportunity to see him outside of school, though it was never just the two of them. She didn't know if she was thankful for that or a little upset.

Adrien, Nino, Alya and Marinette had also all grown extremely close through the last few years. A strong bond of friendship from awkward encounters and friendly banter kept the four of them tight and inseparable. It was always nice to have a group to count on in high school.

"Hey, gals, ready for our first day of our last year?" Nino greeted them, a big smile on his face as he waited for someone to respond to his lame attempt at a joke.

Adrien rolled his eyes at his comment and Marinette sighed.

Alya raised an eyebrow. "Can we hold off the hard to understand statements until after we get through the first day?" she asked as she put her phone away.

"Hey, Marinette," Adrien said, his green eyes turning away from their friends to focus entirely on her.

Marinette started, shyly looking back at the boy across from her. "H- hey." Okay, so maybe she was still trying to get out of the awkward phase. Nonetheless, she gave him a smile and tried not to look into his eyes too much. She was afraid she may melt at the way he was looking at her.

She was too busy focusing on the fact that he actually spoke to her to notice the small frown and light blush that graced his features. She, instead, started playing with the strap of her sketchbook and tried not to freak out too much.

Before that happened, they were called into the school building and went to their classes for, as Nino said, the first day of their last year.

By the time Marinette returned home, she was more willing to take on patrols instead of dealing with her final year of school. "This is going to be so hard," Marinette groaned. She laid out across her bed and threw a hand over her eyes to shield them from the light streaming in from her window.

She could hear Tikki fly from her bag and over to where she lay before she felt her land on her forehead. "Come on Marinette. You'll be fine! What's another year of studying to Ladybug?"

Marinette carefully removed her arm so she wouldn't hit Tikki and opened her eyes to see the little kwami looking at her with big blue eyes and a tiny smile. "You just think it's so easy. But it's hard to argue with an adorable face like that."

Tikki giggled and reached for Marinette's hand, grabbing onto one of her fingers and hugging it. "You should get started on that homework. You have patrols tonight!"

Marinette laughed exhaustedly, this was not going to be an easy final year. Though she enjoyed her classes, Marinette knew she was going to have it rough.

Her thoughts strayed to the mysterious figure and her meeting with Chat last night.

In more ways than one, it seemed.

* * *

By the time she had finished her homework and transformed, she was exhausted from the entire day. Was she going to be able to put up with patrols?

She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, all of Paris winding down after the long day of school and slow business. It was quiet and dark, but there were no disturbances. Which was very peculiar.

Hawk Moth hadn't attacked in the last couple of weeks. Normally, Ladybug wouldn't mind too much about that because it gave her sometime to relax. But it was unsettling to think that the bad guy wasn't doing something visible and destructive. It meant he was hiding and planning.

"My lady."

Ladybug turned to see Chat Noir waltzing up to her, more chipper than he usually was.

First the figure, then Adrien, then silence, and now this; could this day get any more unusual?

"Chat. Did someone give the kitty milk?"

Chat shrugged, twirling his tail around, much like he did last night. Which reminded her…

"Chat, I've heard around that some people have captured a picture of a figure that may be-"

Chat shook his head, silencing her before she could finish her sentence. "No, it was just me. I was at the Tower last night. Someone must have caught a picture of me leaving it."

"Oh?"

So that picture was just one of Chat with her on his back? Ladybug thought for a second, trying to recall the picture in her mind's eye. Now that she actually tried to think about it, the height seemed to have matched up. But the shape of the figure didn't look anything like the slim cat she knew. Though she did know he wasn't alone last night.

"But the figure didn't look like you?"

If Ladybug hadn't been studying him, she would have missed the small flush of red behind his black mask. "I can assure you, my lady, it was me."

Why wasn't he telling her about last night?

Ladybug decided not to worry about it. It had been a stressful enough day and if Chat didn't want to tell her about his little escapades, then it wasn't her business. Even if it did, sort of, involve her.

Okay, now she was just going to confuse herself.

She was Ladybug right now, not Marinette. She needed to focus.

"Well, let's get going. The streets have been unusually quiet lately. It's making me feel really suspicious, so we're going to have to be alert when we can. Including our time as civilians."

She expected a witty remark, an attempt for him to delve in and try to revel her secret identity to him. At the very least, a flirty response from him.

He simply nodded and swung his arm in front of him, "Lead the way, my lady."

Ladybug didn't want to point out anything. Usually the two were very good about keeping their personal lives out of their super lives. And if something was bothering Chat, no matter how much she wanted to ask, the pressing matter of a silent Hawk Moth was too much for her to think about him tonight.

Ladybug jumped and she knew, without looking, that Chat was following her.

* * *

 **Here's the next part of this story! I know it's a bit slow, but that's how it is sometimes. I hope you liked it a little at least, and there will be more to come soon! If college doesn't do me in the next few weeks at least. I've got quite the plan for this!**

 **My writing tumblr is hpowllover24 in case you wanna drop in! Happy readings!**


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